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This year's birthday overlapped the Chinese New Year season again.

Thursday, the fifth day of CNY, we met at LJ's place for steamboat. Her son Caleb was super active and said the funniest things and he was the entertainment of the night. 

It was the first time that we've got full attendance!! Everyone's got new updates and new complaints about having kids haha. 

Dinner was good, dessert was good, and also birthday song and cake was expected.

The next day I went with Jessie to bai bai and then after that she treated me to a Japanese restaurant. We are going Japan already why still eating Japanese -_-  Anyway another cake.

I want to stop eating cakes, I need to gym so hard to burn them off. 

After Japan more treats coming... 

CNY 2023

My parents asked me if I wanted to go back to Port Dickson with them on Friday but most of my cousins either weren't there or only there for a night, so I decided not to go back with them. Besides, I need to settle some stuff for my Japan trip. 

I just love the CNY eve feast. Although I miss the one in Port Dickson (my aunt's cooking), Singapore is good as well. I really need to learn the recipe from her before she becomes too old to cook. And also all the cousins coming together to eat, it's the fun we always have as a big family, especially this was the first time after Covid. I think there were around 20-30 people. Really great catching up. 

So CNY eve lunch, went back, and dumplings for dinner, and wine after. 

CNY Day 1, went over again for lunch, went back to work a bit, bought many stuff online from Japan, cooked dinner, then wine after. 

Same thing again for Day 2, played with the kids, went to the gym, then went out to buy dinner. No more drinks for me.

Today is Day 3, which is a holiday and I need to chase people at work to finish my report next week. I feel so unprepared for my Japan trip, like I'm missing something. 

Flying year

Everyone: Why you keep going Japan? Already went in November not enough?

Me: Japan is never enough.

Me and Zac are really excited for the upcoming Japan snow trip lol, he has been texting me everyday about the Myoko snow and he's going to propose to his gf there hahaha. Wow I can't believe it has been 3 years since I have snowboarded in Japan, the last time I did was in Swiss last year. 

What I really miss is soaking in the onsen after the whole day and having warm sake in the winter. It's the ultimate combo. Luckily all my friends coming can really drink hehehe. We are also going back to Tapas Molecular Bar we booked the entire seating haha.

Hanoi is done.

End of Jan - Japan snowboarding and eating.

End of Feb - Jakarta for work. It was supposed to be Tokyo but postponed to next year urgh. I was kind of pinning for Tokyo so I can go snowboarding a second time at Appi.

Before June - maybe Bangkok or Taipei. I have a really big project so I can't spend much before it's completed in June. 

My mum wants to go Hokkaido so probably summer time, around July.

Angus is going back to London in August so I can use my SQ miles and also stay at his place. I want to coincide with the end of summer sales in London hehe. 

He's also going back to Chong Qing at the end of the year so most probably I'll tag along.

I really miss Shanghai. I want to go back there.

Also, I really want to visit Skylar in LA. Neab has been asking me to go California as well but it all depends. I have plenty of annual leave, just no plenty of cash. 

Travelling overseas is returning back to normal I love it. This year is going to be a flying year.

Hanoi 2023

First holiday/work trip of the year!

While Yuri went to London, I brought another 2 colleagues to Hanoi. 

I did zero planning, I didn't know what to do in Hanoi and there weren't much information online but I did list down a few places to eat/ drink/ coffee. We flew SQ which was getting lousier :( but the movies selection was still good. I have always wanted to watch Table for Six and finally got the chance to do so on board.

Arrived, hotel got a transport for us, checked in hotel and grabbed to Pizza 4ps - the restaurant that was really raved about and everyone said to go.

It. Was. So. Good! And so affordable! I could eat this everyday if I could. And the bottle of Italian wine was only $40. Great start to the trip!

The breakfast was wonderful in the hotel. They had all the Japanese things - grilled fish, miso soup, japanese rice. They had egg station, pho and noodles station and salad and pastries. And the yoghurt was so good. It's melt-in-your-mouth yoghurt pudding. 

Anyway we had to wear formal because we were meeting important people, and after breakfast we grabbed to the office.

After working in the morning, they brought us for lunch and we ate snail spring roll???? Ok nvm, but it was good. They know that we love coffee so they brought us to a hipster coffee place where we had to squat and drink. The coffee was amazing I love Vietnamese coffee.

After lunch, a quick discussion and I'm back at the hotel at 4pm. I shopped at the supermarket beside and back to the hotel to play games and waited for dinner. We had grilled beef noodles for dinner it was wonderful. And went to a brewery that Zac recommended for amazing beer.

I had the sour dragon fruit beer and a Hanoi beer.

Amazing breakfast on the second day morning and I always had to poop twice because I was super full. After a working morning we had gifts from them, had a fish pot for lunch, great coffee again, and then back to the hotel. 

I supermarketed lots of coffee, fish sauce, safety stuff, travel essentials and my mum's cashew nuts. Then back to the hotel, played some ipad games, went for massage, walked around the weekend market which was like the pasah malam 20 years ago, and Pizza 4ps for dinner!

This 4 types of cheese ice cream dessert is soooooo good urgh.

Saturday was the free and easy day. I really had nothing to do. Went to the Citadel which was boring, ate at some duck pho restaurant, had coffee and back to the hotel for ipad games. I ate and pooped a lot. 

At night I decided to treat myself and ordered all the expensive things in Pizza 4ps. 

This is a crab tomato based pasta and a carafe of red Sangria. I am going to make sangria next time. 

I also ordered the expensive dessert and guess what? 

The total bill was only $37.

Took a stroll at the weekend street and back to hotel. Nothing much on the last day, played ipad games and ate at a great bun cha (grilled pork noodles) place, had coffee and hotel car to the airport.

The whole trip was just eat a lot, poop a lot, drink a lot of coffee and sleep. I think I played games more than I worked lol. Hanoi food was amazing but it can be boring - there were no attractions. I should have booked a tour to Ninh Binh.

With all the food I ate, I need to gym x 2 now urgh.

Full January

January is full of activities. 

I have the Vietnam Biz trip, visit to the bank, maybe PD trip during CNY, CNY gatherings, my anniversary and immediately after - snowboarding trip. I am mentally so unprepared for all of these and actually I just want to stay at home and do nothing lol. That's what I did during the Xmas and NY weekends, and also this weekend. 

I have so many things to do but I need to do it step by step. I guess the best way to do is to write in down on excel hahaha. Packing the luggage is really a bitch - it's also thinking about what to wear and what else to buy, especially those items from Taobao. 

I'm so glad my mum cooks everyday so I don't have to worry about food and what to eat. I just need to think about my things. There are so many things I want to buy but no money :/

Looking back 2022

January to March
Met choir peeps for Dim Sum on 1 Jan again

Birthday dinners with Eric and Edward and began my house searching process

Spent CNY in Singapore at Four Aunt's house and Wei Ling's house

Angus came to visit so I bought him around MBS Art Science Museum, he got me a pineapple gin from London

Dinner and drink with Kat and went to her place for the first time!

Bought Iphone 13 pro after 4 years of my Iphone X

Started my little red book account lol

Renewed my passport because upcoming trip

Switzerland trip with my mum and Jessie. First overseas trip after 2 years, first trip with both and their first trip to Europe. Really enjoyed it because we went at the right time and I snowboarded

Bought my first LV in Switzerland

April to June

SG started opening up, a lot of eating and drinking and spending

Learnt to make scented candles because of my love for candles

Neab came to SG - his first time after so long so we went around like tourists. I was so glad to see him.

Sida's wedding

Met Felicia and Matty after so long!

Bought my first Hermes and Givenchy sneakers

July to September

Buddy came to SG, brought him out for dinner and drinks

IPPT silver -_-

Emcee duty for Kelvin's wedding which turned out to be so fun

Started helping another team for work and got so much negative vibes

Bangkok trip after so long, stayed at the Standard and spent a lot haha

Jason came to SG, dinner and drinks

A lot of house viewing, almost bought a house

Got Covid positive -_- and couldn't smell or taste anything for 2 weeks and couldn't meet Neab who was in SG

October to December

Japan opened up! And I quickly booked 2 flights

Bought

Bought lots of candles, including Le Labo from Carousell. I still love Carousell!

First trip to Manila! Met Standley on the flight! First biz and leisure trip and it was not bad

One day after, went to Tokyo after 2 years. Met Angus, Emi and Mika. It was so fun shopping and eating non stop.

Edward's birthday dinner

11.11 sale as usual

Bought my Saint Laurent Backpack

Blew up at a colleague lol

Neab in SG again, got super drunk and went hiking the next day, started cutting back on alcohol

Company DnD in MBS, quite fun, and went to Adriel's party after

2 weeks leave - very productive 

2022
Financial
This year I only saved 63% of my total cash, compared to 68.46% last year, even though I had more bonus pool, and still below my targeted 70%. 

Not surprised, because my spending habits changed, probably because of last year's spending habits. I started eating salad for lunch and my meal budget went up to $10-$15 because I only had to spend twice a week on meals. The 3 overseas trips (Swiss was the most expensive) were so different from my previous budget trips. For Swiss it was the hotels, meals and luxury items, for Bangkok it was the hotel and Tokyo was the snacks and facial products. Oh wells, memory > money but at least I had some cash back after each trip. At this age I don't seem to mind spending more overseas.

I bought a record number of luxury items this year. LV, Hermes, Givenchy, Saint Laurent. WHY!!! I wasn't the luxury brand kinda guy but Covid turned me into one! Ok to be honest, I bought most of them way below retail price and below $1k and I never regret any buys, they are all worth it. Even my mum and friends approved. The only regret is not buying more lol but I got no money. I also cut spending on alcohol - I have more than enough gins, wine and strong zero. 

Physical
I guess not much changes physically, I am still consistently gymming. I got Silver for IPPT which was normal. Ageing makes it so hard to get Gold so maybe I'm giving up for Gold. I cut my hair really short from August and I plan to keep it that way until next March. 

Edward commented that my face became so flawless after I came back from Japan. It's the weather and my holiday aura. 

My facial routine:

Morning: Elixir Toner, Elixir moisturiser, Allie sunblock.
Night: IOPE men essence, Pola moisturiser, hair serum. Sometimes mud mask or Keane rice mask.
I really swear by Pola. It is expensive but the best best best facial product I've used and I can see the effects the next day. 

Social

Same as last year - not much of a social actually. I met Eric for movies, Kat for drinks and Kelvin for discussions mostly, met Soon quite regularly, I think it's quite nice and fun. Only met Jarren and gang once this year, met Angus, Jason and Neab. Totally cut off from Sophia Road although there were some tangles. Less of going over to Jessie's towards the end of the year because I got quite annoyed at her sometimes. 

I finally met Fel, Daniel and Matty after so long! Also met Eleanor after so long haha I love how she calls me spidernest. Catching up with a lot of people at the end of the year.

Overall
This year is so much better than last year. When the year started it was still in the state of the unknown but it got better and better with the world opening up and travelling allowed in most countries. Everyone's revenge travelling but war at Russia and Ukraine and I got a feeling the China-Taiwan one is coming too. Work has been stable and got better when I don't need to help the other team anymore towards the end of the year. A little bit of pressure and stress in October to November but everything went well in the end.

My tagline of 2022: Gearing up

2022 turned out good and everyone, including me, is gearing up for next year. I thought it was quite stable and it was short for me. I had more focus and clarity toward the end of the year. I also had a lot of time to do my things!

2023
This is it. The year of reckoning. I have a huge project to complete and it is my next goal. It's going to be so exciting and I can't wait. Actually, everyone is excited. I already have a few business trips coming up, my snow pilgrim, travel plans with Angus, maybe my aunt and my mum. I'm going to be so busy, it's looking great.